A Real Weeknight Meal--with leftovers!

  I feel blessed to work part-time and have extra days off with my little girl.  However, I still feel the same pressures and dilemmas that all moms, those that work full-time, stay-at-home, and all those in-between, have. What's for dinner?!? Since we strive to eat as healthy as possible, that means cooking at least 5-6 days a week.  My husband is a fabulous cook, but let's face it, if I let him cook, we probably won't be eating dinner until at least 7 p.m.  That sets us up for a late night with trying to get our little one a bath, lunches packed, and bedtime routines done.
  I try and plan my meals a week at a time and make a grocery list.  I love grocery shopping during the week since there's almost no one there! That's probably one of my favorite things about being off during the week, not having to shop on the weekends with everyone and their brother. Wednesdays have proven to be a great day, since Sprouts has double-ad deals on that day. You get all the savings from the previous week's ad as well as the new week. I love a good deal!  I generally buy the majority of my produce, some speciality goods(like coconut milk, tofu, certain grains), as well as items like nuts and beans from the bulk bins. Then, I make my way to Aldi where I purchase my staples such as dry goods and remaining produce I need. If you haven't checked out Aldi, you have to try it at least once! A few things to keep in mind: 1. take a quarter for your cart deposit,(you get it back and if you forget one, you can always borrow a quarter from the cashier) 2. take your own bags, and 3. have the correct form of payment(i.e. debit card or cash, no credit cards accepted).  They are always adding new products, among my recent favorites are organic virgin unrefined coconut oil for $4.99(major steal!!)and almond butter for $4.99 as well.
  Okay, so back to our weeknight meal. I made roasted sweet potatoes stuffed with southwest quinoa and a salad on the side.  The sweet potatoes were inspired by this recipe and the quinoa is from this recipe. My modification for the quinoa is to just use 1 can of black beans instead of the two that is called for.  I have served the quinoa alone as a side dish or I am sure my carnivorous friends could added chicken for a one-dish meal.
  Step one would be to roast your sweet potatoes. I roasted 4 so we would have some for lunch the next day.  Preheat your oven to 400 Degrees. Line a large cookie sheet with foil since sweet potatoes will leak out sticky juice that you do not want to try and scrub off! Clean your sweet potatoes and prick all over with fork, then individually wrap the potatoes in foil.  Large sweet potatoes will need about an hour to an hour and a half to cook fully. Small sweet potatoes will take 50-60 minutes. Flip your sweet potatoes halfway through their cooking time.
  While your sweet potatoes are cooking, prepare the quinoa.  The first step in many good recipes is to saute onions and garlic. Talk about a good smell!  The recipe says to saute both at the same time, but I like to give the onions a little head start and add the garlic in the last few minutes so it doesn't burn and turn bitter.

 Many people have commented that quinoa has a bitter or slightly off-putting taste.  One way to combat that is to rinse it in a mesh colander before cooking.  Quinoa is a grain that is packed with protein.  It is generally grown in South America and is considered somewhat trendy in the U.S. but has been around as a staple in the diets of South American since ancient times. As a side note, I watched a documentary that mentioned quinoa saying it is basically unaffordable for the people in the countries where it's grown since there's such a high demand for it in the U.S.  In addition, many in the younger generation of those countries don't want to eat it as it's considered old-fashioned. Interesting.   I usually pay about $4.99/lb for quinoa, but I can sometimes find it in the bulk bins at Sprouts for cheaper.  Just a 1/4 cup(dry) has 6 grams of protein, 3 grams of fiber, and 10% of your daily intake of iron.  When discussing our diet, people often ask "but where do you get your protein?". Well, there's one place--quinoa! It cooks faster than rice at only 15 minutes and can also be used as a hot cereal for breakfast.  In general, Americans eat plenty, if not more than they need, of protein.  Here's an article I found discussing how much protein we really need.
  After the onions are translucent, add the quinoa, broth(or water is fine too), and spices. Bring to a boil then reduce to low and cover.  Cook the quinoa for 15-20  minutes or until all the liquid is absorbed.

In the meantime, drain and rinse the black beans, measure out 1 cup of corn, and chop the cilantro.

After the quinoa is finished, stir in the frozen corn and allow to cook for 5 minutes. Then, add the black beans and cilantro.

Now, you'll probably have some time leftover before the sweet potatoes are done, so let's make a salad! I decided to do an assembly line so we would have salads ready for lunch the next day.  I am really good at making dinner but for some reason, I despise putting it all away and packing up lunches. So, this felt a little more efficient.

Here's what you need for the salads I made:

4-6 cups of lettuce(I used pre-washed spring mix)
1 cup red grapes, chopped
1/3 cup red onion, thinly sliced
4-5 mushrooms, sliced
1/4 cup walnuts
1/4 cup dried cranberries
Balsamic dressing

Here's my set-up to build my salads:

Then,  I just distributed the toppings amongst each salad.  Voila! Dinner salads and lunch salads for the following day.

The finished product:

Hopefully, your sweet potatoes are done by now! Slice open a sweet potato, add a generous scoop of the southwest quinoa, then top with 1/2 fresh, sliced avocado and if you like it spicy, add some hot sauce! We love Trader Joe's hot sauce. If you still have quinoa left after making lunches(we did)it freezes really well.

Enjoy!

List of extra ingredients not in quinoa recipe:
4 sweet potatoes
2 avocados
hot sauce